Salute to the Joint Chiefs?

To hear narcotics investigators tell it, whoever planted more than 2,000 marijuana plants in rugged Trabuco Canyon was part botanist, part camouflage expert and part mountain goat.

Toiling for months on the plantation, the growers hiked up near-vertical slopes in the Cleveland National Forest, hauling seedlings and irrigation hoses with them, then digging terraces into the canyon slopes to sow their crops.

In a densely grown region populated by coyotes, rattlesnakes and quail, the unknown planters knew enough to farm on the canyon’s moist shaded slopes, not the sun-seared dry faces. They also planted the pot beneath trees so that their illegal plantation would remain nearly invisible from spying helicopters. Dust was used to camouflage an ingenious irrigation system of plastic tubing that drew water from tiny storm-water gullies and creeks.

The planters probably returned to the site--a three-hour hike from the nearest road--every other week. They punched small holes in the irrigation hoses so that they would drip water on the bases of the plants, which were spaced irregularly over several acres.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies finished hacking down the 3-to-6-foot tall cannabis shoots Friday, describing it as the county’s biggest marijuana farm. While much larger plantations have been found elsewhere in the state, investigators said the Trabuco Canyon farm is significant because marijuana is rarely grown in any quantity in Orange County.

They also conceded that they might never have uncovered the operation without the help of an anonymous caller.

“If we hadn’t gotten this tip, this field could have been there another 15 years,” said John Fleischman, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

“You couldn’t even tell it was there if you were right on top of it in a helicopter.”

Authorities said they were still perplexed as to who planted the marijuana.

Closer inspection of the area may reveal clues. “It’s very difficult to determine who did this unless they left something behind,” said Capt. Kim Markuson of the sheriff’s special investigations division.

“As we clear the field, we’re looking for evidence like store receipts for their equipment.”

Investigators declined to say what motivated the anonymous caller.

However, a Web site operated by High Times, a magazine that writes about the drug culture, offers this insight about how such caches are discovered: “Most often, growers or dealers are not entrapped by a narc--they are informed on by a suspicious neighbor, jealous spouse, angry ‘friend,’ or misguided acquaintance.”

Orange County authorities raid one or two outdoor pot farms each year. Usually, the raids yield 500 to 1,000 plants.

Narcotics investigators said they had found 2,000 plants and were still counting. They have estimated the street value at $3 million to $3.5 million.

“This particular farm is rather extensive,” Markuson said. “If you’re standing at one end, you can’t see to the other.”

By late afternoon Friday, sheriff’s deputies hauled out the first load of harvested plants by helicopter--a mere dent in the pile.

Deputies then began the tedious process of bagging the plant in paper evidence sacks and loading it into a truck.

Eventually the pot will be burned--an option that was not open to deputies today.

“There’s no way we could have burned those plants in the field,” Markuson said. “We would have had a tremendous forest fire.”